I hunt a large bay; at the mouth of the bay, the water on average is 60ft. Then lake Ontario, the average depth of the bay is 45ft. In the center of the bay we have a raft thousands of Divers. Greater, Lessers, Ring bills ect.
They trade back and forth in the center of the bay always in deep water. When they leave the bay they stay well off of shore, and go over to Canada to feed.
Here’s my situation; As of right now I see three ways of rigging my singles to hunt that depth of water.
1 Rig all my singles with 60ft of line.
2. Rig 2-3 doz with 60ft of line, then some how connect with a short line from head - tail 3 – 4 singles to those.
3 Make them all into long lines and add them to the ones I already have, and have no singles........ I need imput.

SCUBA GEAR! Leave the decoys behind, and do the only thing that seems reasonable. Put a cork in the end of you barrel to keep the water out though! :laughing: On a serious note, I take it you can hunt open water with long lines. When you jump these birds do they come back to where they originally were? If they do come back, I would say jump them, then set up in their flight path where they flew to and get them coming back. I don't have a ton of experience hunting the "big water" but I just came back from the Boston Harbor, and that is how we hunted the Old Squaws. These birds flew over us as if we weren't there. Wings cupped, Pete

This site is about having some fun, learning, helping others, and enjoying the commaradre' of other waterfowl hunters. And if you do not like those 4 things, then do not let the door hit you on the way out of here.

Pete, scuba gear was my forth choice, but I thought na….. As far as jumping them, that would lead to my name in the paper and a good size fine, I hate it when that happens. That’s a no no here in N Y. Being out there would put me in their flight path. I want to put the smack down on them as thy are coming and going from the bay.

Had, what you described, I believe is my second choice, which is the one I’m leaning towards. Unless someone has a better idea.

Sorry 870,
Never quite know what the rules are from state to state, I was actually very surprised, that out in Mass. you are allowed to shoot ducks while the boat is in motion (as long as the motor isn't running). We only have a few bodies of water here in Wisconsin that we are allowed to hunt in open water. Otherwise we need to be on the shoreline in natural vegitation, and we still need to be anchored. We aren't allowed to jump birds with a boat either here in Wisconsin, so don't think I'm a big violator. Wings cupped, Pete

Pete, thanks for help, trust me after I finish hunting that raft somehow finds its way into the path to boat launch, everybody gets some shooting then. By the way that hole SUBA idea… Its back in the running, I’ll just leave the decoys to home.

hmm..aside from the SCUBA gear i can't think of too much else to help ya out.

have you considered using a .22 or similar cal with a scope and tight groupings at 200 yards?

seriously though. i don't hunt too much big open water like that. on a few occasions i have paddled a sneak boat upriver (or up wind) of a large group of scaup that had rafted up out in the middle of the river and then floated back into them. if i kept down and quiet, they usually didn't pay much attention to me as i drifted in..i could usually get an easy 30 yards away before they started giving me second looks. of course, if they were drifting at close to the same speed i was it made for a long boring trip.

Look who showed up, Duckhtr you’re just the guy I was hoping to hear from. I couldn’t remember your username to contact you. I’m in hopes that you Eider hunt, and that you might have an answer for my deep water rigging of my singles. Right now I’m leaning toward rigging 1 with 60ft of line, then add 3 to 4 to that one. Any suggestions would be appreciated
870

If you want to increase your chances, try going a day or two ahead of time and do some scouting. If the birds are rafting in the same location, go out on the water the day before(without your gun if state rules are in your way) and but you boat right in the middle of where the rafts has been trading from and mark it on your GPS. That way when you head out in the morning you will set up right where the want to be!! Oh ya bring lots of shells.

I hunt from the shoreline and I've hunted bigwater. Those longlines are the way to go. What I did was get a spool of 550 cord and made several motherlines . Varying in length. I have my blocks with about 3 ft of cord on them and then I tie a swordfish clip to the end. The motherlines I use a half milk jug with cement . The clips are the nuts and just snap right onthe motherline. The reason I use about a 3ft lead from the block is that the line will sink and allow for the dog to swin right over the lines and he won't get hung up. I only anchor one and, and I let the current or wind push the deks in a straight line. I'm sure you probably knew all this , but thats how I do it. GOod luck with the upcoming season......Matt French

I hunt in presque isle bay in erie pa . I use 3/8 inch black rope with 3 bricks on each end. They are a total of 150ft long each. 45 ft on each end with aprox 12-15 dekes 3-4 ft apart they stack nice in a 40 gal tote or garbage can nicely!!! The key is always start up wind and float down wind throwing the dekes out carefully. then pull they to where you want em. IAfter dsoing it 30 -40 times I got good at what distance away to start. When you attach your dekes use 2 ft of cord so the rope is at least 2ft down so a dog or boat prop will not get tangled . You can adjust as needed to fit your situation!!!!

Not sure if this is what you were looking for but when we get in deep water we use trot lines on one end of the line tie on your 60 ft line with a weight and drop it the we replace the hooks with big swivels and clip the swivels to the keel and run the line back to the blind. So decoys have no strings or weights and we roll the line up on a extension cord spool.